October 2007


Long Cab Waits and a Little Dancing

With my folks still out of town, I had to get myself to work again this morning. I wanted to get to work earlier than I did yesterday but it didn’t work out that way. I called a cab at ten and it took about an hour and two more calls to finally get on at my house.Although Friday is a doctor day and we had a couple new patients scheduled it was a calm afternoon. I was tied up more than I would have liked and didn’t get much tangible work done. Annisha was going to Dillard’s on the west bank after work and gave me a lift over the river. I figured I could go to Sears, maybe buy something and get a cab the rest of the way home.I wasn’t really interested in anything particular but the two pairs of headphones I carry around and getting worn and I did walk out with a pair of those Sony ‘street style’ headphones to replace the pair I have now that’s getting worn out, cosmetically at least. The news ones are nearly identical although the cord is thinner and these are more comfortable.I called a cab to get the rest of the way home, three times, and it took about 45 minutes to arrive. It only took 20 minutes of waiting for me to regret not just going straight home from work. I finally got home at about 5:30. I cleaned up my room and got some laundry going, checked eBay and that sort of thing.This evening, the Tulane ballroom dancing club had an outing at Ray’s Boom Boom Room on Frenchman Street. Every Friday, Freddy Omar gives free salsa dancing lessons at nine followed by a regular performance from ten to one. I called a cab from my house at about eight. I got a call back almost immediately from ‘Elliot,’ the same driver that took me to work on Thursday. He said he recognized the address and was on his way. On the way downtown, he told me a little about his years as a cab driver. He told me a story about a guy who called for a ride all the way down in Venice, LA back to New Orleans.I arrived at “Ray’s” at about 8:45. Another act was playing when I got there. I think they were called the “Soul and Spirit Band,” but I’m not sure. For a lead-in act they sounded pretty decent. Their female vocalist could really project. Freddy Omar started the lessons a few minutes after nine, before most of the other Tulane students arrived. They didn’t miss much though, just a simple set of steps to the left and right. I presume Mr. Omar was aware who most of the participants were because he made a handful of comparisons between ballroom dancing and salsa dancing. There were two sets of movies he went over. The steps done by oneself weren’t so bad, but the pairs moves were more than I was able to pick up on in under an hour and it showed.During the lessons I was in the front ‘row’ with a couple people including Megan, who graciously served as my partner during the lessons. Mr. Omar used her as an example later on. Since I was right up front, Freddy saw me stumbling around and tried to help me himself. He was patient but I wasn’t quite picking up on the more complicated things. Megan didn’t seem to mind much though and did seem enthused when we did get something right. The hour passed rather quickly. After a short break, the band started their first set.I found a spot to stand off to the side with Veronica, Shona and Andrey. I didn’t get to rest too long though. Nicolle, who was my partner through most of last Tuesday’s practice, asked me to dance and I happily obliged. It was a lot of fun even though neither of us really knew what we were doing. After one or two songs we both needed a break and went to sit down. I went to the bar to get some water. I think I got the last two bottles they had. We talked for a little while and were soon joined by some other wary souls. After a short while, Megan asked for a dance. I still didn’t know what the hell I was doing and she was visibly disappointed but still cordial. I went to sit back down after that. There was plenty of rotating company.Not long before 11:30, Andrey called the “last dance.” The students who came from campus were on a couple of vans that were scheduled to leave on the half hour. Nicolle got me up for one more before they left. Neither of us looked like we knew what we were doing but it was a lot of fun anyway.After everybody left I closed my tab and grabbed a cab home. I had a nice conversation with the driver who was from Gabon, Africa. He was much more educated on matters of current events and politics than most natural born citizens I encounter.After I got home I put a little laundry on, took a shower and talked to Krystle on the phone for a while before I finally went to bed around two.

Comments Off on Long Cab Waits and a Little Dancing

Better… Not Great, But Better

Mom, Dad and Andrew left early this morning to fly to Detroit. They will be gone through the weekend so I’ll be running the office and have the house to myself. I got a cab to the office and arrived at about 11:30, later than I would have liked. The office was pretty quiet today as it usually is on Thursdays. We did get two new patients called in though.I left the office at 4:15 to catch a streetcar downtown to catch the medical school shuttle to get to school. I left later than I liked but I was able to just catch the shuttle to go uptown. This evening’s math for information technology class was a continuation of sets and we actually talked about venn diagrams, bringing back memories from middle school. The class was actually somewhat entertaining.After class, I walked over to the Reily Center. I attended the ballroom dancing lessons again this evening. The turnout was lighter than last week but there’s wasn’t a large disparity between guys and girls which works out better. The first 15 or 20 minutes of the class recapped the steps we learned last week. One of the first things the instructor mentioned was to keep your heels off the floor to making moving about easier. I suppose it was acceptable for her to assume people would notice but since I’m a complete moron I was trying to dance flat-footed last week, which didn’t work out so well. With this newfound knowledge I did much better this week. I nearly have the steps from the first week down now. A few new moves were introduced this evening. I didn’t do so well with the new stuff but I know I’ve made a lot of progress which was nice and made this evening a lot more fun than last week.Andrey invited me to accompany him and his friends to Vera Cruz again this evening. It was largely the same crown as last week with the exception of Sona. I met two new people this evening, Patrick and Angela. The crowd was pretty tame when we arrived although things picked up later. Andrey and Veronica left at about one and I got a cab home not too long after that.

Comments Off on Better… Not Great, But Better

Mon., Tues., Wed.

Work the past three days has seemed unproductive, partially due to low hours. I’ve been leaving work early for one reason or another.Class this week hasn’t been bad, it certainly could have been worse. Monday’s visual communications class was exceptionally dull and the demeanor of the somewhat sparse class reflected it. I have no immediate recollection what the class was about. Luckily the boredom was not lost on the instructor and he mercifully dismissed class early at 7:30.Tuesday’s Louisiana History class wasn’t bad. We discussed the early American period and Louisiana’s relevance in the War of 1812. Class ran longer than I would have liked but it wasn’t a big deal because I had something to do after class other than run for the shuttle.Following the dancing lessons on Thursday, there was a practice session this evening sans the instructor. There were only eight of us present including Andrey and myself. It was a good sized group to practice with though. I had the same partner through most of the hour-long session. We went over the steps we (sorta) learned last week. I did slightly better but I still suck. I caught a cab afterward and arrived home at about 10:30.Dad dropped me off downtown by the shuttle stop early this evening because he had to go to the west bank office for some reason. I cracked open my art survey book to look over some things and found the study guide for this evening’s mid-term exam. I completely forgot about it. I was somewhat fortunate though in that I had time to study both on the bus ride and later on campus before class. After I got off the bus, I walked over to the Reily Center to get a special club sport pass so I can get in for the dance lessons without buying a full membership. Andrey sent me the forms for this earlier at work.With this taken care of I walked over to the art building and poured over the study guide with my textbook before class. The test involved identifying slides with photos of ancient works of art. I figured the best way to try and cram this much material was to look at a photo and then handwrite the name of it. I find I often remember the act of physically writing something down.Although most classes reserve an entire class period for an exam, Professor Bayer gave an hour-long lecture on Etruscan art prior to the test. He does this with quizzes too and it bugs the hell out of me. It’s a severe disservice to us slackers who try and cram just before tests by bombarding us with a bunch of new information that is not immediately relevant.After a ten minute break we began the hour-long test. There were 20 multi-part questions with accompanying sides. We had three minutes for each question. I could have done a lot better but my last minute studying definitely saved my ass. In the future I will be writing assignments in a small notepad rather the notes on my computer which I seldom read. Dad picked me up from class after class. Later this evening I watched some TV, the first half of a movie, talked to Krystle and did some laundry.

Comments Off on Mon., Tues., Wed.

Late Losses

I was fortunate enough to be able to stay home from work on Friday. Dad had something to do early this morning and was gracious enough not to subject me to rising early, which was nice because I got to bed so late the night/morning before. I did have to wake up at 8:30 to cover the phones for about an hour and then went back to bed for a while. I didn’t do much of anything the rest of the day.I was at home all day Saturday watching football. Tulane played this evening and there were some other big games going on that night. I moved my TV into the living room so we could watch the Tulane and LSU games at the same time. Tulane played at Army this evening. Speaking frankly, they have a pretty lousy team and we should have win, and nearly did. With three minutes left in the game, we had a 17-7 lead. Army managed to tie the game with a one-in-a-million hail mary catch on the last play of regulation. We held Army to a field goal in the first possession of overtime. Army’s defense held us and we missed the field goal, ending the game with a humiliating defeat. That wasn’t the biggest upset that evening, though, as Stanford defeated USC this evening.On Sunday, Dad and I went to the Saints game with my co-worker Bianca. She had some spare tickets because her husband was out of town. Like the Tulane game, things were looking up until the end of the game approached. There were a couple of critical interceptions that kept the Saints from pulling ahead. Carolina scored a tie-breaking field goal on the last play of the game. The Final was 13-16, sinking the Saints to 0-4.

Comments Off on Late Losses

Swing

The office was nice and quiet, partially because of the frequent rain which consistently keeps the patient’s away. I got a phone list update done but I never managed to get to any initial reports like I wanted. Dad had to go to the west bank office later this afternoon so he had me a Tulane by quarter to five. After stopping at the bookstore to get some bluebooks, I walked back to the Tilton building and camped out with my laptop for a while before class started. The professor arrived a bit late but that gave me time to catch up on my log, including this very entry.This evening’s class was largely about decision tables, which were covered briefly last week. The second half of class after the break was about sets. Class ended after 8:20 so I would have to get a cab home. Before I called one I listened to a voice mail from Andrey who called while I was in class. He invited me to a session of swing dancing lesions at the Reily Center, sponsored by the ballroom dancing club. There was a good sized crown of about 30 at the event this evening, which started at nine. The crowd was unfamiliar with exception of Andrey and his friends Veronica and Shona, whom I’ve met once before. There were twice as many women as men, so the girls had to take turns with partners. One could argue whether or not this was a problem.The hour long session focused on a single triple-step swing dance. It did not seem very complicated but I could never quite get the first basic steps. This was the first time I attempted to learn any sort of dance at all, and I had practically no success. Dancing is something I’d like to be good at, but I would have to start learning on the most basic level and this wasn’t it. I did enjoy myself though. I wasn’t the only one struggling and the others were very forgiving and supportive.The class ended at ten. I was going to head home but Andrey invited me to join hem and his friends who were going to Vera Cruz, a little place across the street from Bruno’s.It was a little while before everyone was there. People had to do this and that before we all wound up there. Eventually everyone was there. In addition to myself, Andrey was there, his girlfriend Veronica, her roommate Shona and a few people I had not met before, Austin, Kerry and Sona. We just sat around for a while with our drinks and talked. Eventually they decided to enjoy the music a bit more actively. The place has a DJ working that played a little hip-hop and varieties of Spanish music and people dancing to match. This went on until sometime after two in the morning. Andrey and Veronica had left a while earlier though.I was going to get a cab straight home from Vera Cruz and offered to share it to help the rest of the crowd get home but they insisted on walking. I decided to tag along because it’s best to have numbers when walking around in the middle of the night and one of our party was conspicuously intoxicated and could barely walk. Austin was quite a trooper and carried the girl when she wouldn’t walk. The 10 minute walk back to the dorms took about a half hour with the slow pace and occasional stops to rest or vomit. After they got the girl in a bed I walked to the student center and called a cab to go home. It took about 20 minutes to arrive. I finally made it home at 3:30 and went to bed not long after.

Comments Off on Swing

Greek Art Continued

Dad and I got to the office for 11:30 this morning. It was a somewhat loud day at of the office but not overwhelmingly busy. I wasn’t as productive as I would have liked but I did get the week’s mail out this afternoon. We ordered pizza for lunch, a lot more than we needed.This evening’s art survey class continued last week’s lecture about Greek art, mostly sculpture. Although we saw pictures of a lot of original work, most of the slides showed marble Roman copies or original brass sculptures. Apparently many such sculptures were melted down centuries ago for the raw materials. This is also the case with a lot of antiquity’s architecture, in which people just walked away with the stone for other structures. There was a quiz at the end of class on Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. We were instructed to familiarize ourselves with these works last week but I forgot about it and bombed the quiz, which was very frustrating.After class, Dad met me at the Boot and gave me a ride home. Later that evening, I worked on my math homework for tomorrow and finished watching Yankee Doodle Dandy. I normally find musicals unenjoyable but the songs in this film had proper context since the movie is about the famous Broadway producer George M. Cohen, writer of such famous songs as “Over There” and “Grand Old Flag.”

Comments Off on Greek Art Continued

Ignored Week

An even week has gone by since the last post and I’m not inclined to bother covering it much. Classes were fine, overall. Things were looking up this weekend with the Raiders finally winning a football game. Although Tulane lost to LSU this weekend, they played quite well. I was more impressed with their performance this weekend than their win the previous week.The office was very quiet today. We only had a couple patients and Dad was gone for a few hours. After work, Dad took me to school with time to spare before Louisiana History Class this evening. The first half of the class discussed a book about Marie Laveau. I fully intended to read the book. I ordered it a few weeks ago but I’m still waiting for it. I did, however, pass the quiz on the book I didn’t read last time. The second half of class was about late Spanish Louisiana and the Louisiana Purchase.Class ended just in time for me to catch the shuttle downtown. Dad picked me up at the medical school and took me the rest of the way home. I watched Boston Legal this evening and later started watched a movie.The Zune 2 was announced this evening. As a Zune owner this was of interest to me. While I’m not thrilled with the new hardware, I did find some of the news quite fascinating. All the new features available on the new Zunes will also be made available to early adopters of the first generation Zune. I think this is pretty awesome, rewarding those early adopters that put faith in this new brand. It sure would be nice if Apple was interested in maintaining support for their two year-old products rather than soldering the batteries to the main board and expecting their “iSheep” to buy new iPods every 18 months.

Comments Off on Ignored Week